'Let them shout as loud as they like, we'll proceed with poll'

'Let them shout as loud as they like, we'll proceed with poll' - Mugabe

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PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe refused Tuesday to give into international pressure, saying the world can "shout as loud as they like" but he would not cancel this week‘s runoff election even though his opponent quit the race.

The African National Congress also warned against international intervention following a report in the Times of London that Britain has drawn up contingency plans for deploying troops in Zimbabwe to resolve a humanitarian crisis and to evacuate British nationals and their dependents.

The ANC singled out Britain, the colonial power when Zimbabwe was still Rhodesia, saying it had not followed through on pledges to help fund efforts to put more land in the hands of black Zimbabweans. Britain has cited concerns about corruption.

Mugabe, a vigorous 84, kicked a soccer ball before thousands of cheering supporters and declared he would not back down.

"Other people can say what they want, but the elections are ours and we are a sovereign state," he told a rally in Banket, north of Harare, in his first public comments about his opponent's withdrawal from the run-off.

"Those who will want to recognise us on the basis of objectivity will do so. Those who don‘t, keep your judgment to yourselves. We will proceed with our election. Our people are going to vote, and that vote will decide whether we have won or lost.”

He accused the opposition MDC party leader Morgan Tsvangirai -- who said that violence has made a free and fair vote impossible -- of seeking to withdraw because he was scared of losing.

"The MDC leader saw this wave of political hurricane coming his way. He is frightened, frightened of the people," Mugabe said.

"We hear that he has sought refuge at the Dutch embassy. Seeking refuge, what for? Nobody wants to harm him."

Tsvangirai has been detained several times while trying to campaign for the second-round vote after he failed to clinch an absolute majority in the March 29 polls, in which Mugabe lost control of parliament.

The MDC hand-delivered a letter to the electoral commission on Tuesday confirming his withdrawal, but Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said it was too late to do so.

He said that if Tsvangirai had wanted to pull out he should have done so 21 days before the first round of voting on March 29.

Mugabe‘s plan to go ahead with Friday‘s vote appeared to stem less from a desire to validate his rule than to humiliate Tsvangirai.

Tsvangirai told the Dutch national broadcaster NOS radio Tuesday that the Dutch ambassador had spoken to the Zimbabwean government and received assurances there was no threat. Tsvangirai said he might leave the embassy Tuesday or Wednesday.

But the U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe, James McGee, said Tsvangirai should be wary of government assurances and that violence was escalating against the opposition as Election Day approaches.

"There‘s really nothing that we can do in the international community to stop these elections," McGee told reporters, adding that the embassy expected Mugabe militants to force voters to go to the polls Friday, and to attack anyone who does not.

McGee said the Southern African Development Community, and South Africa as a leading member of that bloc, should speak out with words as "firm and as hard-hitting" as Monday‘s U.N. Security Council statement.

Zimbabwe‘s neighbours may have more influence than the U.N., McGee said, adding that Zimbabwe is a landlocked country and vulnerable to actions such as border closings.

"Regional bodies have tremendous influence," McGee said. "There are so many things that could be brought to bear, that could have a tremendous, immediate impact on the government of Zimbabwe."

Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, who has been trying to broker an agreement, said Tuesday that South African President Thabo Mbeki was trying to persuade Mugabe and Tsvangirai to share power in a transitional government with Mugabe as president and Tsvangirai as prime minister.

Wade was also proposing that Tsvangirai take a position junior to Mugabe‘s, but not that the coalition be considered merely transitional.

Neither proposal appeared to have been embraced by the rivals — Tsvangirai has insisted he be president and Mugabe have no role.

The Times of London report said Britain had drawn up two separate contingency plans for military action, one to resolve a humanitarian crisis and the other to evacuate British nationals. The Ministry of Defence said it has no current plans for deploying troops, but declined to discuss whether contingency plans had been drawn up. - AP/AFP

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